HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
The only hotel on Taos Plaza, where guests still report cigar smoke long after its cigar-loving owner died
108 S Taos Plaza, Taos, NM 87571
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Historic boutique hotel on Taos Plaza; room rates vary by season. The hotel's D.H. Lawrence 'Forbidden Art' collection can be viewed for a small fee.
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story adobe building on the plaza; stairs and period thresholds
Equipment
Photos OK
Only Hotel on Taos Plaza · Home of the D.H. Lawrence 'Forbidden Art' Collection · Longtime Ownership of Saki Karavas
Hotel La Fonda de Taos occupies the south side of the historic Taos Plaza and bills itself as the oldest hotel in Taos and the only one standing directly on the plaza. The adobe building has served travelers to the historic district for generations and sits steps from the galleries, museums, and shops at the heart of town.
For much of the twentieth century the hotel was owned by Saki Karavas, a colorful Taos figure remembered for his cigars and for the art collection he kept at La Fonda. Karavas acquired a group of paintings by the English writer D.H. Lawrence — works that had been seized as obscene when first exhibited in London in 1929 — and displayed them at the hotel as the 'Forbidden Art' collection. The paintings remain a draw for visitors, who can view them for a small fee.
The hotel has since been renovated while keeping its historic character and its connection to the Lawrence collection. It continues to operate as a boutique hotel on the plaza, trading on its location and its place in the cultural history of Taos. Its long association with Karavas, and his particular habits, sit behind the ghost story most often attached to the building.
Sources
The ghost story attached to Hotel La Fonda de Taos is sensory rather than visual. The most consistent report is the smell of cigar smoke drifting through the building when no one is smoking — a scent that people who visit, work in, or stay at the hotel have described over the years.
Local ghost-walk operators connect the phantom cigar smoke to Saki Karavas, the hotel's longtime owner, for whom cigars were a well-known signature. In that telling, the lingering smoke is read as Karavas keeping an eye on the place he ran for so long. The account is the kind of single-sense, owner-tied story common to old hotels.
Because the cigar-smoke claim rests largely on a single strand of local lore and ghost-tour narration rather than multiple independent investigations, it is best treated as unverified Taos folklore. The hotel's documented identity rests on its plaza location and the Lawrence art collection; the ghost story is a smaller, well-worn piece of its reputation that the town's haunted walks have kept in circulation.
Notable Entities
The only hotel directly on Taos Plaza, La Fonda de Taos is a historic adobe with rooms and suites in the center of the historic district. The lobby holds the D.H. Lawrence 'Forbidden Art' collection assembled by former owner Saki Karavas, and the building is a recurring stop in Taos paranormal lore.
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